Support Missouri 911

Spending $450,000 of FY’05 Homeland Security money, Missouri contracted L. Robert Kimball & Associates to report on the “Current Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) and 9-1-1 Infrastructure”. The results of the report were to give the state a better understanding of what it would take to link PSAPs and other areas without 9-1-1 to the State’s planned Internet Protocol (IP)-enabled network.

The product of the report put into words what many of us knew.
• 18 Counties in Missouri have no 9-1-1 service;
• Only 68 of the 171 PSAPs have Enhanced wireless 9-1-1 service;
• Wireless subscribers continue to exceed wireline subscribers at an increasing rate;
• The majority of Missouri’s PSAP equipment is more that six years old and most cannot be updated to accommodate new communications technologies;
• Missouri is the ONLY state in the nation that doesn’t have a state wireless service recovery fee;
• Without a state wireless service recovery fee, Missouri will never attain statewide enhanced 9-1-1 service and some existing PSAPs will cease to exist.

In 2008 the Department of Transportation and Department of Commerce established the E911 Grant Program. Interestingly enough, the purpose of the grant is to assist in the implementation and operation of Phase 2 E9-1-1 Services, migration to an IP-enabled emergency backbone, and enable the PSAPs that don’t have the capability to receive 9-1-1 calls, some of the major recommendations of the Kimball report.

In December of 2008, RD Porter, Missouri State 9-1-1 Coordinator, began a series of meetings on a regional basis in order to inform and educate PSAPs on the E-911 Grant Program. The grant awarded a minimum of $891,711.03 to Missouri.

The application requirements consist of the following:
• Submission of a State 9-1-1 plan that includes the coordination of local governments and PSAPs
• 90% of the grant funds must be used to benefit PSAPs directly
• A Designated E-911 Coordinator
• The State must apply on behalf of the eligible entities.

As of this date, the Final Rule for this grant has not been published. States have no later than 60 days to submit an application.

Therefore, in order to,
• Follow the Homeland Security funded Kimball report recommendations
• Apply for and take advantage of the E-911 Grant Program; and
• Utilize monies that can begin to heal Missouri 9-1-1.